ArcaMax

The Things We Hate...

It all started with lima beans. My mother dared to foist them on me. The rule at our table was, if it’s on your plate, you eat it. You stay at the table until it’s eaten. No whining. No negotiation. I resorted to swallowing the lima beans with milk. I pretended they were large pills.

There wasn’t much variation in the meals at our house, except for the infrequent lima bean episodes. We had chicken most Mondays. Tuesday was likely meatloaf. Friday was definitely fish. Saturday was a crap shoot of leftovers and Sunday was more often than not, spaghetti. Or if my mom wasn’t feeling great we might have one of those little pot pies. My brother and I loved them. When we had pot pies we were allowed to eat at TV trays in the den where the TV was. Those things were so hot I thought I’d see flames shooting out between the steam clouds but once it cooled off we snarfed them down.

I didn’t eat many “exotic” things until I was an adult and moved away from home. I remember once I had a boy friend who insisted we have oysters Rockefeller. This was on a fancy date. That was my last oyster. I tried to bite it in half. Those things should have come with instructions!

Then there was the time I tried to eat a whole leaf of an artichoke. No one told me to just dip it in butter and sort of scrape off the good parts with my teeth. I did learn later how to eat an artichoke and I learned to love them.

I tried making clam chowder for another boyfriend once. He loved it. I gagged each time I was near it. Even while I was cooking it I would run into the kitchen to stir it and run back out before I added an unexpected element to the pot. I managed not to vomit, but it was a close call.

One of my least favorite smells on the planet is that of cooked cabbage. Terrible thing really. When you are Irish as I am, you are expected to love corned beef and cabbage. And as Irish as I am, I’ve never eaten it. And don’t get me started on the smell of sauerkraut. They used to try to force that stuff on us in grade school. The whole cafeteria reeked!

So then there’s the cabbage cousin, the Brussel sprout. I used to just tell people they were little cabbages so you better just keep those away from me. I’ve tried eating them a few times at dinner parties and the faces I was tempted to make weren’t pretty. I did manage pretty well with them once when they were drowning in butter. Butter helped.

At another dinner we were served Brussel sprouts that had been caramelized. Now you’re talking! By caramelizing them they get rid of that nasty cooked cabbage smell. They are nicely browned and they take on a sweetness.

The other day my husband was in the produce department negotiating to be allowed to bring home Brussel sprouts. He LOVES them. I told him he could bring them home if he cooked them. “How many should he get?”, he asked. I said to get as many as he wanted plus maybe one or two for me. I’d try one. If they passed for caramelized maybe I’d have a second one.

When we went to cook them he was wishing he had bought some bacon. Bacon and Brussel sprouts make a good combo. There was no bacon in the drawer so we decided to experiment with pepperoni. The result was SO good, you are now the beneficiary of the recipe.

During dinner I not only ate the one Brussel sprout, I ate the second one, and I negotiated with my husband to share more of his. He smiled and handed over more. I smiled back.

At this time of year many of us have a start to our family gathering where we tell the group what we are thankful for. This year I’m thankful for my improved health and the joy that comes along with starting The Zola Diet. We have so many blissfully happy dieters. They write each day to tell us they haven’t felt better in years. They are off of meds they’ve been taking for diabetes, acid reflux and so much more. One guy said he’s been whistling in the halls at work. He hasn’t done that in years, but he feels young again and he’s losing weight like crazy. And that makes me thankful.

Caramelized Brussel Sprouts with Pepperoni Bits
Serves 2

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:

15 Brussel sprouts trimmed and peeled. Just trim off the bottom of the stem and peel off a top later of leaves so you have clean Brussel sprouts ready to roast.

1 tsp of minced garlic

2 Tbl olive oil

Sea salt to taste

15 pepperoni rounds (1-inch size) cut into teeny bits. Think Chiclet size – if you remember those)

Directions:

In an oven proof pan, put in the Brussel sprouts, garlic and olive oil. Toss to coat the Brussel sprouts in oil and garlic. Grate some sea salt over the top and sprinkle on the pepperoni bits.

Roast in your oven for 30 minutes until nicely browned.

Cheers
Enjoy,
Zola

Send email to Zola at dinnerwithzola@hotmail.com.